2017 Open Hearth Cooking Classes

Are you interested in historic foodways? Do you want to learn how to cook in your fireplace? Do you have a beehive oven and ever wondered how to heat it and bake in it? Please join us this winter to prepare and eat savory and sweet dishes under the guidance of our experience open hearth cooks.

A series of seven one-day classes, each with its own theme, has been scheduled for Saturdays in February and March 2017. Classes are held in the kitchen of the 1786 Hall Tavern. The hearth cooks will teach you a variety of cookery techniques and lead discussions on 18th- and early 19th-century food preparation, preservation technology, seasonality, diet, and the availability of local and imported foodstuffs. While the food is cooking, a visit to a kitchen of a historic house is part of the experience. A bibliography on open hearth cookery will be distributed.

You will participate in the process and assist hearth cooks in the tasks undertaken. We recommend that you dress comfortably, bring an apron, pen, and paper for notes. After the food is prepared, you will sit down to enjoy the fruits of your labor. (You may also bring a brown bag lunch.)

Events Calendar

To say that there are numerous choices any given day or weekend is no exaggeration. Summer and fall, of course, are the most active with ethnic and music festivals, notably the Green River Festival in July, and craft fairs and fall foliage celebrations well into October and November. Several communities have monthly celebrations such as First Fridays in Greenfield. Whatever your pleasure, you will find extraordinary experiences that celebrate the rivers, hills and valleys and towns that typify New England as you’d hoped to find it.

“Our Chamber membership is one of the important ways that we place value on our relationships with other business owners and with our community. “ Bruce Lessels, Zoar Outdoor

“Chamber membership helps keep my staff in contact with the local business community through their seminars and events.” – Michael Tucker, Greenfield Cooperative Bank